The election is over…well…sort of.
Truth be told, I hadn’t planned on the “sort of” part when it came to giving my answer on this subject. But with Ben giving his thoughts on the subject pre-election, I believe my post-election comments will ring true no matter the final outcome or the results. Who knows – maybe this will be a “once in a lifetime” opportunity to write down some thoughts mid-presidential election? One can only hope…but I digress back to the subject at hand—Pulpit & Politics.
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Imagine the scene for a moment—millions of people are gathered lining the streets. The excitement of what’s to come is felt by everyone including those who find themselves in opposition to what’s about to take place. The nation’s banner is being waved by seemingly everyone as this man comes riding into the city. They are all cheering as if this is the realization of their long-awaited hope—the hope for a political leader to free them from those who have corrupted and overtaken their land!
But right as this man comes to the end of the crowd’s cheers, He goes straight for the Temple instead of the Roman fort. Jesus was the Messiah, just not the kind the people expected. He was going to free them but not from Roman rule. He was going to save them from their sins, not their political enemies.
Within days the people were disappointed, their hopes dashed, and their thoughts of Jesus disillusioned. “We must look for another,” they thought as they shifted their eyes and turned their backs on Jesus. But here’s the truth that Israel would hopefully learn from that first Palm Sunday—don’t wait for the next political messiah or you might just miss Jesus in the process.
As we consider what we can learn as pastors and Christians from this past election, I think the truth is very similar to Israel’s that day. To put the truth in my southern vernacular—if your wagon was hitched to Jesus leading up to the election, you didn’t have to buy a new cart afterwards. Politics will sell you a four-year model; Jesus’ lasts forever.
DON’T PUT YOUR HOPE IN A POLITICAL LEADER!!—no matter their looks, how they act, or what they promise they are not worthy of our hope. As Christians in America, casting our vote is our civic duty, casting our hope is not. There is a difference and our post-election reactions will reveal which one of those we have cast at the ballot box this election.
No matter what side of the political aisle you may find yourself on CAST YOUR VOTE BUT NOT YOUR HOPE. As pastors we must, I repeat MUST, show and exemplify this to our people. It is not merely our pulpits and ministries that may suffer if we don’t, but it could also be the size of our God and Savior in the minds of those to whom we minister. May we, as pastors and Christian leaders, never get to the place as a friend of mine put it where a
“pastor accidentally, unknowingly, or willingly has educated himself into a secular mindset that will only draw him to use language and talking points that tend less to lead to Christ and more to ‘gospel issues’….. [This] pastor gets to a place that he has unknowingly or worse adopted these practices that harm him, his family, and his church.”
Either Jesus is our Savior and the Hope of this world or He is not. There can be no middle ground reverberating from the pulpit because Jesus left no middle ground riding into Jerusalem that Palm Sunday. Jesus had a chance to become a historical political leader for the nation of Israel that day but instead He cleansed the Temple of God (Matthew 21:8-13).
May we as pastors and Christians follow Christ’s example that says—there is a greater cause, a greater hope, and a greater salvation than politics. For as Peter, the disciple of Jesus, would eventually testify to all of Israel (and all of us)—
Truth be told, I hadn’t planned on the “sort of” part when it came to giving my answer on this subject. But with Ben giving his thoughts on the subject pre-election, I believe my post-election comments will ring true no matter the final outcome or the results. Who knows – maybe this will be a “once in a lifetime” opportunity to write down some thoughts mid-presidential election? One can only hope…but I digress back to the subject at hand—Pulpit & Politics.
__________________________________________________________
Imagine the scene for a moment—millions of people are gathered lining the streets. The excitement of what’s to come is felt by everyone including those who find themselves in opposition to what’s about to take place. The nation’s banner is being waved by seemingly everyone as this man comes riding into the city. They are all cheering as if this is the realization of their long-awaited hope—the hope for a political leader to free them from those who have corrupted and overtaken their land!
But right as this man comes to the end of the crowd’s cheers, He goes straight for the Temple instead of the Roman fort. Jesus was the Messiah, just not the kind the people expected. He was going to free them but not from Roman rule. He was going to save them from their sins, not their political enemies.
Within days the people were disappointed, their hopes dashed, and their thoughts of Jesus disillusioned. “We must look for another,” they thought as they shifted their eyes and turned their backs on Jesus. But here’s the truth that Israel would hopefully learn from that first Palm Sunday—don’t wait for the next political messiah or you might just miss Jesus in the process.
As we consider what we can learn as pastors and Christians from this past election, I think the truth is very similar to Israel’s that day. To put the truth in my southern vernacular—if your wagon was hitched to Jesus leading up to the election, you didn’t have to buy a new cart afterwards. Politics will sell you a four-year model; Jesus’ lasts forever.
DON’T PUT YOUR HOPE IN A POLITICAL LEADER!!—no matter their looks, how they act, or what they promise they are not worthy of our hope. As Christians in America, casting our vote is our civic duty, casting our hope is not. There is a difference and our post-election reactions will reveal which one of those we have cast at the ballot box this election.
No matter what side of the political aisle you may find yourself on CAST YOUR VOTE BUT NOT YOUR HOPE. As pastors we must, I repeat MUST, show and exemplify this to our people. It is not merely our pulpits and ministries that may suffer if we don’t, but it could also be the size of our God and Savior in the minds of those to whom we minister. May we, as pastors and Christian leaders, never get to the place as a friend of mine put it where a
“pastor accidentally, unknowingly, or willingly has educated himself into a secular mindset that will only draw him to use language and talking points that tend less to lead to Christ and more to ‘gospel issues’….. [This] pastor gets to a place that he has unknowingly or worse adopted these practices that harm him, his family, and his church.”
Either Jesus is our Savior and the Hope of this world or He is not. There can be no middle ground reverberating from the pulpit because Jesus left no middle ground riding into Jerusalem that Palm Sunday. Jesus had a chance to become a historical political leader for the nation of Israel that day but instead He cleansed the Temple of God (Matthew 21:8-13).
May we as pastors and Christians follow Christ’s example that says—there is a greater cause, a greater hope, and a greater salvation than politics. For as Peter, the disciple of Jesus, would eventually testify to all of Israel (and all of us)—
“Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole….for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” - Acts 4:10, 12
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